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Apparently the whole “women’s lib” thing has caught on as a powerful marketing tool:

Now, if this weren’t a part of a multi-million dollar marketing campaign aiming to sell women hygiene products, I might give the whole “Hail to the V” thing the benefit of the doubt. Vaginas are pretty damn great. They are the cradle of life, and all those other trite phrases the commercial throws at us. And “The V” is decisively better than “…you know…,” “down there,” or other particularly cringeworthy nicknames used.

Summer’s Eve has already drawn a lot of criticism for this campaign for being racist. And I agree. Not only in that weird, talking-hand spot, but in the current one too. My first thought when I saw this commercial was, did they really just start this ad with an image of a black woman holding up a baby Lion Kingstyle?

My other problem with this campaign is the refusal to use the word VAGINA in the commercials. If VAGINAS are the “most powerful things on earth,” then shouldn’t we give them the respect they deserve and address them by their full names?

The website for the campaign is more in-your-face than the television ads, going so far as to actually use the word VAGINA. Though slightly horrified by the hopefully-inadvertent association of pipe cleaners and vaginas, I was pretty amused by the absurdity of the company’s “That’s Vaginal!” blog. Espousing the use of the word vaginal as a synonym for awesome, a cat (get it?) exclaims “A lion riding a manta ray–unquestionably vaginal!”

On the surface, I love the vagina-power of the site. In my opinion, not enough people are saying that “It’s about time vaginas were celebrated for their awesomeness.” But how exactly am I supposed to give props to my vagina by making it smell like an Island Splash? I’ll answer that one: I don’t.

The absence of the full “V word” in the TV spots goes to show that Summer’s Eve is selling us the same BS that we’ve always heard– that we should tone down our “V”s. If vaginas are so great, then why do they need to smell like baby powder? Why can’t we even say the word “vagina” in primetime advertising? Summer’s Eve is just one of countless companies hawking all sorts of “feminine” products designed to turn “the V” itself into a commodity. They give a false nod to empowerment for the sake of making women feel that their natural beauty, in whatever form, is not good enough. Instead of hailing the vagina in all it’s vaginal awesomeness, this and similar campaigns tell women that their real power lies not in their ability to give birth or inspire political change, but rather in their ability to remain attractive while doing so. If that is the standard of empowerment, I’ll gladly fall short.